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The Itch and Tomato Relish

I had a quite serendipitous occurrence this morning.
As with my inability to work steadily up to any deadline, there are several travel problems to straighten out: changing my flight back, finding places to stay or go...I can partially blame the website for being difficult to work with! (haha shiftin' dat blame)

Anyway.
What occured I have dubbed "the itch", after the episode of House I watched.
The general theme of said episode was that House had personal issues he was actively avoiding instead of addressing them. At the same time, he had a bite that was "bugging" him, itching when the problem drifted through his mind.

Following that episode, I had my usual night of varied dreams: about playing hockey again, dealing with strangers that I 'knew' in a weird dark castle. Then, as I was drifting awake, a very vivid and real feeling dream.
In this dream, I got up and went to the bathroom to wash and brush my teeth, and noted that when I opened my mouth, all my teeth were corroded and stained with ridges where my braces used to be, and one fang and one molar had a large dark area that, when I touched it, came away on my finger like apple spread.....ewwww

I freaked out and rinsed my mouth, and then those teeth were completely gone, and my tongue felt the gums, and THAT is when I jerked awake to find my face was lying uncomfortably on my knuckles.

This dream related to the fact that I had been putting off going to the dentist to make sure all my teeth were ship-shape before going abroad. My mother had cautioned me that it really sucks having tooth trouble in the plane or a foreign country.

So I thought I'd share that because my subconscious is basically screaming GET YOUR BUTT INTO GEAR WOMAN. Moral of the story: don't put stuff off, because it will nag away in your mind until you address it.

Moving on.
Rolling off the back of eating all the tomato relish slathered on crunchy nice things, I had a crack at making my own.
And. Pulled. All. The. Stops.
I roasted the onion, garlic, and veggie leftovers in a humble dressing. I added sun-dried tomatoes since we had that and no tomato paste. Then I heated and squished canned diced tomatoes, plonked in the roasted goodies, and went to town on souring, sweetening and spicing.
Yield is two small jars of tangy yumyum.

Instructions:
Heat oven to 200 celcius ~400 fahrenheit.
Peel and slice onion into rounds. Peel and halve garlic. Dice your fated veggies.
Place in a ceramic dish. Mix the next 4 ingredients and pour over the vegetables. Cover in tinfoil, prod a few holes in it and cook in the oven for 50-60 minutes, until the onion and garlic are properly soft.
Pulse the roasted mush in the food processor.

Crack open cans of tomatoes in a saucepan, and squish contents between your fingers to break up the tomatoes. Stir in the roast vegetables and dried tomatoes. Place pan over medium heat and bring to a steady simmer.
Now add the vinegar and sweetener, adjusting to your preferred sour/sweet balance. Add a pinch of the paprika and cumin. Incrimentally add mixed spice or pinches of the list of spices until it pleases your taste buds. Stir in mustard to taste. You can add chili paste for extra heat here.
Cintinue to cook your relish until it reaches a pleasingly gloopy consistency.
Take off the heat and pour into your jars.

Enjoy with raw vegetables, crackers, on peas and chickpeas,.....go nuts!

Brace yourself for another post verrrry soon, my take on dulce de leche, but no sugar, milk powder or cream required!

And since I am wanting to share today, progress shots!
This is a mandela that I have been chipping away at for a while now.

I am open to suggestions for the blank petals! I used a zentangle called betweed on the smaller petals.

And here's to letting everything inspire you, these were water patterns on the bus window. The blue is what the window wiper creates in its wake, the bottom left is the rain streaking over the passenger windows, and the bottom right is someone rubbing condensation off the window.

Question: Have you ever had the universe, or your dreams, re-enforcing things you ought to attend?And what inspired you to pick up a pen and make pretty t'ings?